


No Goodbye Lasts Forever

by Cdelphiki



Series: Exiled Robins [4]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics), Red Robin (Comics), Robin (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Gen, Kind of starts of with angst, Life Happens, Multiverse, Reunions, Stranded in another universe, Time Travel, but its mostly fluff, do not copy to another site
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 06:41:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17116349
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cdelphiki/pseuds/Cdelphiki
Summary: It's been a day since Tim Drake said goodbye to his little brother 'forever.'  A whole day, and somehow that little brat is standing outside his apartment door.  Tim is more than slightly confused.This is a one-shot that accompaniesLife HappensIt takes place between the final chapter and the epilogue.





	No Goodbye Lasts Forever

**Author's Note:**

> Major spoilers if you haven't finished reading [_Life Happens_](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14779667/chapters/34182836)

The day after his family left, Tim stayed home. He cancelled all his classes, emailed his boss, and let his graduate students know he wouldn’t be coming in. It was just too much for him to handle. Every time he thought he had everything under control, a memory from the past eight yers would pop back up and send Tim spiraling back down into the horrible depths of his misery. 

So he spent the day with Bristol. Playing with her, reading to her, watching television with her. And even though Damian was no longer there with him, and never would be again, Tim tried his best to see everything positive left in his life. His little girl was most certainly a light in his world, and he knew that focusing on her would help him move on. 

But it was going to be a slow process. 

Jordan and Paul were both going to come over Saturday, which was just another thing he had to keep him positive. He still had family. Even if they weren’t Damian, and seeing them would just remind him more of the little boy he’d raised, he knew from experience that cutting off the people he loved would just hurt him more in the end. So he'd keep them around, and try his best to see them as much as possible. 

That night, though, it was just going to be the three of them. Him, Kyla, and Bristol. His wife wouldn’t get home until 7, but there was nothing unusual there. They were used to late dinners. 

The unusual thing that happened that evening was the doorbell ringing at exactly 6pm. 

“Oops,” Tim said, lifting Bristol off his lap and setting her on the floor, “Let me go get that, baby. I’ll be right back.” 

Not caring, Bristol set the book they’d been reading down on the coffee table and continued looking at the pages herself. Tim could already see the too-cool-for-Daddy attitude he knew was coming with her older years.

Running a quick hand through his hair in hopes of looking semi-presentable, he walked over to the door. He hadn’t planned on facing the world that day, so he hadn’t even gotten dressed that morning. Hopefully whoever was bothering him wouldn’t judge him for being in pajamas at 6 on a Wednesday. It was his house, after all. And he was an adult. He could do what he wanted.

All thoughts of his hair and attire went right out the window when Tim looked through the peephole, though. Because standing right outside his door was… everyone. 

Tim couldn’t get the door unlocked and opened fast enough. Once he did, he was greeted with the smiling face of Damian Wayne. 

The very same Damian he'd just said goodbye to yesterday. Goodbye forever. What the heck? 

“Hey, Tim,” he said, his smile somehow growing as Tim just stared blankly at the crowd of people outside his apartment.

“What?” he finally said, blinking a little, hoping that doing so wouldn’t cause him to wake up or stop hallucinating, “I don’t understand?”

And he didn’t. Because standing in front of him was everyone. _Everyone everyone._

Damian. Bruce. Dick. Jason. Alfred. Babs. Steph.

Everyone.

And they were all carrying dishes…. of food.

Which made even less sense, because it should have been mere minutes since they left this universe. With how time moved, it hadn’t even been half an hour in their world. In fact, it should have been about 15 minutes. 15 minutes exactly, since it’d been a full 30 hours in Tim’s world. 

How on _earth_ did they manage to gather the whole gang, prepare food, and come back to this world in _fifteen minutes._

“We synced the timelines,” Damian said, still smiling just as happily as he pushed his way past Tim into the apartment, “It’s July 2nd in our world, too.”

“Dee,” Bristol screamed as she ran to Damian and latched onto his legs, preventing Damian from easily walking over to the table to drop the contents of his hands. 

“Bristol,” Damian exclaimed, just as brightly, “I missed you so much.”

“Can we come in?” Dick asked, winking at Tim as he, too, stepped in and past Tim to go set his food down on the table. 

That snapped Tim out of it, and he immediately turned toward Alfred, who was carrying far too much, “Oh, let me help you,” he said, trying to take a platter from Alfred, who was somehow balancing it on top of the crockpot in his arms.

“You will do no such thing,” Alfred chided, evading Tim’s arms as he maneuvered his way to the kitchen, “where is an outlet that I may plug this into?”

“Tim,” Steph shouted, jumping up behind him to wrap her arms around his shoulders, “Oh my god you’re so old. I missed you so much!”

“Steph,” Tim laughed, patting her arms as she clung to him, “it’s great to see you, too.”

“I hear you have a wife and daughter and I’m only slightly insulted that Jason got to meet them first out of all of us.”

“It’s great to see you, Tim,” Babs said, after she’d wheeled in to face Tim, “your absence has been noticed in Gotham, but I’m very glad you’ve found happiness here.”

“Thanks Babs,” Tim said, shaking himself of Steph so he could give Babs a hug, “I missed you.”

“Tim,” Bruce said, clapping a hand on his shoulder after he’d, too, set his covered dish on the table with the rest of the food, and Tim was starting to feel incredibly overwhelmed. 

It was loud in his apartment. Between Bristol squealing her pleasure at seeing her uncles, Steph loudly cooing over the girl, and Damian shouting directions out toward Alfred, who was making himself right at home in Tim’s kitchen, Tim could barely hear himself think. 

But the one thought he could hear was, what on earth was going on??

“I still don’t understand,” Tim said, almost whining in his tone. He was so lost. So very lost.

And his voice must have been louder than he meant, because the room quieted and all attention turned to him and Bruce.

“Here,” Bruce said, holding a watch out for Tim, as if that would answer all his questions, “it’s a teleporter. All you have to do is press and hold the buttons on either side for five seconds and then wait ten seconds and it will transport you and anything you’re holding to the other universe. It takes care of keeping track of the time for you so we aren’t messing with timelines or dealing with time skips.”

“It’s like living across town from one another,” Dick said brightly from where he and everyone was standing around, playing pass the Bristol. 

“Yeah,” Damian said excitedly, as he took Bristol from Jason, “we need to decide on the permanent teleport location here, but in our world it’s the cave. That way no one will ever see you suddenly teleport there and you can visit whenever you want.” 

“I do hope you will join us for dinner at least once a month, Master Tim,” Alfred said as he continued to prepare whatever was in the crockpot.

Tim nodded, almost absently, as he absorbed what everyone was telling him.

Because if he was hearing right. If he was awake and not napping on the couch, it was sounding like they’d figured out how to ignore the time difference to allow visits. Whenever.

This had to be a dream.

“This one is for Kyla,” Bruce added, handing Tim a second watch, “When Bristol is old enough we’ll make her one, too.”

“Wow,” Tim said, looking down at the watches in his hands, “wow. This is- Wow.” 

He finally looked up and saw everyone staring at him. _Everyone._

All the people he thought he was never going to see again. The ones he’d said goodbye to. ‘Forever.’

But nothing lasts forever, apparently. 

“’So,” Tim finally said, looking over at Damian, “we didn’t have to say goodbye?”

“Nope. You’re stuck with me,” Damian replied, bouncing Bristol a bit before the toddler dove for Dick to catch her.

And despite himself, Tim started laughing as he walked to Damian in just a few long strides to envelop his little brother in a hug. His laughter quickly turned to tears, and for the first time in weeks, they were happy tears. 

“It’s only been a day for you,” Damian said as he returned Tim’s hug, “it’s been eight months for me. I should be the one crying. I’ve missed you longer.”

“Be quiet,” Tim said, squeezing Damian a bit tighter.

“I had a Christmas without you. My first ever. Seriously, that’s way worse than—”

“Shut up, you stupid brat,” Tim said, swatting Damian on the back before he finally let go, “I’m still in mourning.”

“Well now you don’t need to be, because if you don’t think I’ll be here every Sunday, you’ve got another think coming.”

Tim just grinned at his little brother, already looking forward to every Sunday for the rest of his life. He really, really hoped he wasn’t dreaming.

“Master Tim,” Alfred said, interrupting his happy daydreaming, “where do you keep your ladles?” 

“Alfred,” Tim said, finally walking over to greet his pseudo-grandfather, “It is so good to see you.” 

When Tim pulled Alfred into a hug, the man startled just slightly, but then returned the gesture. “It is great to see you, as well, lad.”

“Now,” Tim said, releasing Alfred, “you’re going to get out of my kitchen. As the guest, you shouldn’t be lifting a finger.”

“Nonsense, Master Tim. Now please, where do you keep your utensils.” 

“Alf,” Tim said, pulling a ladle out of a drawer, “seriously. Go meet your great-granddaughter, I can handle whatever needs to be done.”

At first, it seemed like Alfred was going to continue arguing, but at Tim’s mention of Bristol, the man visibly softened. It was most likely, Tim assumed, the way Tim referred to Bristol that did the trick. 

They were the Waynes, after all. It was kind of their thing to never use words to express what they were to each other. 

“Very well,” Alfred said, stepping back from the counter to allow Tim to take his place, “but do not expect me to make a habit of this.”

“In my house you most certainly will,” Tim said, smiling as he stirred the soup he’d discovered in the crockpot.

Tim spent a lot of the night just watching his family. Everyone took to Kyla just as quickly as they had Bristol. Even though it was loud. Loud and busy and lively, a sense of peace seemed to settle over the apartment as Tim let sink in the reality of the situation.

While he still wouldn’t have changed his mind before, wouldn’t have returned home with them knowing he’d never see Damian again, it was relieving to know that he didn’t have to choose.

They could have both. Hell, if Tim wanted he could work in one world and live in the other, that is how easy traveling back and forth was now. Tim could have everything. Everything and everyone. Happiness and love and security and his entire family, from both universes.

He could have everything.

And that? That was good. Great.

 _Now_ his life was perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> The government shut down? So I don't have a job right now?? Because they furloughed the federal workers, so I'm stuck at home (oh no, boo hoo, I get all of Christmas week off, I'm so sad) and have free time! I was trying to work on my next long fic, but got distracted with this scene.
> 
> Come bother me on [Tumblr](https://cdelphiki.tumblr.com). I'll take requests for scenes you want to see in this series. :D


End file.
